Enlarging easel



June 17, 1952 Filed Dec. 6, 1949 a a a L 4 7 H n wIIIINIIiIIIMIIIlNIIII.u@

l i a d 6 3 m u OAV@ a INVENTOR BY iZWv/I" ATTORNEYS Patented June 17,1952 ENLARGING EASEL Arthur B. Simmons, Rochester, N. Y., assignor toEastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y., a corporation of New JerseyApplication December 6, 1949, Serial No. 131,368

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to photography, and more particularly to anenlarging easel for holding sheets of photographic material, such aslight-sensitive paper, or nlm, in a plane and for masking the edgesthereof. One object of my invention is to provide a simple andinexpensive easelon which sheets of photo-sensitive material may be laidwith a simple means for masking the edges of the material. A furtherobject of my invention is to provide a means tending to hold two of themasking strips accurately at right angles to the other two maskingstrips. A further object oi my invention is to provide a simple type ofspring clamp which notronly holds the masking strips in their properposition, but which, likewise, provides a handle by which the clampingaction can be released to facilitate sliding the masking strips. Otherobjects will appear from the following specification, the novel featuresbeing particularly pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

Corning now to the drawings wherein like reference characters denotelike parts throughout:

Fig. 1 isa top plan view of a typical easel constructed in accordancewith and` illustrating one embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged end elevation of a portion of the easelshown in Fig 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary end elevation, parts being shown in section andon an enlarged scale of a portion of the easel shown in Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a spring-clamping member showing themeans for slideably mounting a movable masking member on a supportingmasking member; and

Fig. 5 is a plan View of the spring clamp blank before the spring clampis rolled up into its operative position shown in Fig. 4.

The improved enlarging easel comprises a base preferably having anL-shaped masking member attached to the base so that it may be swung atleast partially from the base for. inserting a sheet of photographicmaterial beneath the L-shaped member. Each arm of the `L-shaped maskingmember carries a slideably mounted masking member which is held at rightangles to the member on. which it is mounted. My invention isparticularly directed to a simple assemblage of parts which will producea masking frame on an enlarging easel, particular attention beingdirected to the means for releasably clamping the slideable maskingmember which not only acts as a clamp, but acts as a positioning memberto accurately align theslideable masking members at right angles to themasking members on which they are mounted.

More specifically, the easel may consist of a board l having a flatupper surface 2 on which a sheet of material may be laid. In the presentinstance I provide a groove 3, best shown in 2. Fig. 3, having ashoulder 4 and an inclined surface 5 along one edge 6 of the board l.The purpose of this groove is to receive an edge of a sheet ofsensitized material being laid upon the board, the shoulder lldefinitely locating the sheet of material in the proper position on theboard. At one end of the groove 3 there is a platey which, as shown inFig. 2, may be attached as by a screw 8 so that this plate covers a partoi the end of the groove 3. Thus, the sheet of photographic material maybe limited in two directions on the board; (l) that is, it may be`limited in its movement toward the bottom edge by means of the shoulderil, and (2) it may be limited by means of the inner wall of the plate l.

The end of the board 6 .carries a pair of brackets I0, best shown inFigs. 2 and 3. These brackets carry a leg l l which may be attached tothe board 6 as by screws I2. The other end of this bracket extendsoutwardly at i3, upwardly at I4, and outwardly again at l5. On the outerend l5 there are screws Iii which attach iiexible reeds Il' to thebrackets l0; the other end of these reeds Il carrying diagonal slots I8.These diagonal slots support a masking memberl 2B, as shown in Figs. 2and 3, and the masking member 2li is held by a pair of thumb screws 2 lwhich are threaded. at 22 to a bolt 23 having a head ,2d on the lowerside so that, by adjusting the masking strip 20 in the angular slots I8,the overhang 24, shown in Fig. l, may be adjusted to control the widthof the area masked off of a sheet of photosensitive material 'lying onthe board (l). The masking strip 20 is L-shaped in that there is an arm'Z5 eitherfastened to the mask strip 20, or integral with it. Thus, theL-shaped member 2li-25 may move to and from the board 2 on the flexiblereeds -i'l which serve as hinges. The margin 23 shownin Fig. l, betweenthe stop member l andthe masking member 25, is controlled by sliding4the L-shaped member as a unit in the diagonal slots I8.

Each of the L-shaped arms has similar `maskin g members supported bythese arms. The masking strip 28 carries amasking member 30, and themasking member. 25 carries a masking member 3l; the members 30- andflbeing slideably mounted on the L-shaped members, in eX- actly the sameway so that either one of these members may be individually slid ontheirsnp-l ports to vary the size of the masked opening.

Referring to Fig. e, the means for mounting these maskingkmemhers is therolled-up spring clamp designated broadly as 35. In Fig. 5, there isshown a preferred form of this spring clamp as it is blanked out. Itwill be noticed that at one end there is a pair of spaced arms El@ and3l with a slot 3B between the arms. At the opposite end there is asingle arm 39 which is of substantially the same widthas the slot 33, sothat when this blank is rolled up into the form shown in Fig. 4, thesingle arm 39 projects through the opening 38 and the spaced arms 36 and3l extend on each side of the single arm; these two arms being attachedas by rivets 4B to a shoe 4| and to the masking strip 30, as shown inFig. 4. The shoe 4| is a rectangular block of metal having a straightedge 42 adapted to contact with the inner edge 43 of the L-shaped maskmember arm 20. This block is accurately aligned at right angles to themask member 30. The extreme edge 44 of the arm 30 projects a shortdistance from the block 42 to lie under the supporting L-shaped memberarm 2D. Arm 39 is formed downwardly at 4l, outwardly at 48, downwardlyat 49, and finally inwardly at 50 to provide a hook having comparativelysmall surface contact with the outer edge 5| of the L-shaped maskmember. When positioned, as shown in Fig. 4, the arm 39, which isresiliently guided by the slot 38, always tends to hold the shoe 42tightly against the edge 43 of the masking arm and thus hold the maskingstrip 39 accurately at right angles to the masking member 20. However,in order to slide the masking member 30 to any desired position, therolled-up portion of the spring clamp 35 serves as a handle, both tomove the strip and to release the clamping action between the shoe 42and the arm 49. By applying pressure to each side along the lines asshown by the arrows A-B, relatively slight pressure will separate theshoe 42 and the hook 49 a distance sufficient to permit this clamp toslide freely on the supporting masking member. Immediately when thepressure is released, the natural spring in the rolled-up portion 35will cause the hook 49 and the shoe 42 to approach each other andthereby clamp the strip 3B in its adjusted position. Since the shoe 42is many times as wide as the hook 49, it is self-centering in that thetendency of the spring is to bring the entire surface of the shoe 42into frictional engagement with the edge 43 of the L-shaped mask memberand, consequently, to position the mask member 30 accurately at rightangles thereto.

Since each of the clamping members is exactly alike, they be designatedby like reference characters in the drawings.

It will be noticed that this preferred embodiment of my invention isvery simply constructed and yet the parts are rugged and tend tomaintain an accurate masking device. The flexible reeds l1, which serveas hinges, do not have the play which the ordinary hinge mustnecessarily include because of the hinge pintle, and, consequently, thediagonal slots |8 are always held rigidly relative to each other, exceptthat the reeds i1 may both flex together to serve as hinges, thuspermitting the L-shaped member to be raised from the surface 2 of theboard for the insertion and removal of a sheet of paper. It ispreferable to provide a point 60 on one arm 31 of the rolled-up springclamp 35, since this point can then serve to indicate the setting of themasking member on a suitable scale 6|. This point may project beyond theshoe 42, as indicated in Fig. 1.

The operation of loading the above-described easel is extremely simple.One L-shaped masking member arm 25 is raised from the board I causingthe reeds i1 to flex and lifting the masking arms 30 and 3| as theL-shaped masking members 20 and 25 move upwardly. A sheet of material isthen inserted with one edge in contact with the shoulder 4, and a secondedge in contact with the plate 8. The mask may then be gradually loweredand the sheet is held without slippage, since the masking members arepreferably made of metal which fiexes at least to a limited extent sothat the inner edges of the sheet of photographic material are engagedbefore the outer edges and the movable masking members 30 and 3| contactwith the material. The setting of the masking members 30 and 3| can bearranged to provide the desired masked margin for the sheet, before thesheet is entered, or afterwards, since the masking members may slide onthe L-shaped masking members whether the L-shaped masking members areraised from the board or are in contact therewith.

It will thus be seen that I have provided a simple and inexpensive typeof enlarging easel in which the parts are largely made from blanked-outmetal and in which the parts are relatively rugged for a device of thistype. It is obvious that various changes will readily suggest themselvesto those skilled in the art, and I consider, as within the scope of myinvention al1 such changes as may come within the scope of the appendedclaims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. In an easel for masking sheets of photographic material of the typeincluding masking members, a base, a masking member carried by the base,a second masking member slideably mounted on the rst masking member, thesliding connection comprising a shoe having a straight edge on thesecond masking member adapted to engage an edge of the masking membercarried by the base, and means for releasably holding the shoe infrictional engagement with the first-mentioned sliding member comprisinga looped spring-metal clamp having two spaced arms at one side of theloop affixed to the shoe and a third arm on the other side of the looppassing between the spaced arms, and including means for engaging anopposite side of the firstmentioned masking strip to resiliently gripthe opposite side of the strip and whereby pressure on opposite sides ofthe looped spring may release the second-mentioned masking strip forsliding, said first-mentioned masking member being L-shaped, andbrackets carried by the base, spring-metal strips attached to thebrackets and having diagonal slots therein, one arm of the L-shaped maskcarrying bolts passing through the diagonal slots whereby nuts on thebolts may be turned to slide the L-shaped member on the hinges.

2. The easel for masking sheets of photographic material defined inclaim 1 characterized in that the end of the masking member which isslideably mounted on the first masking member extends beyond the shoe toform a lower fiange tending to retain the slideably mounted maskingmember on the first mentioned masking member.

ARTHUR B. SIMMONS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 864,254 Perkins Aug. 2'7, 19071,557,468 Montigny Oct. 13, 1925 2,315,066 Lund Mar. 30, 1943

